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Postal Policy-Making
APWU Testimony on Capitol Hill
Postal
Reform Act Is
No Endorsement of Privatization
(05/08/08) The passage of the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act in December 2006 did not change the fundamental mission of the Postal Service, an APWU leader testified on Capitol Hill, and should not be perceived as justification for privatizing the nation’s mail system or eliminating its obligation to provide service to all Americans.
Nonetheless, APWU Legislative Director Myke Reid told a congressional panel on May 8, “As we meet here today, there is an active and ongoing effort to dismantle the Postal Service as we know it, to privatize it, and to turn its work over to for-profit companies.” [read more]
Burrus Asks Bush to Appoint
Postal Service Advisory Council
(04/02/08) APWU President William Burrus has asked President Bush to appoint a Postal Service Advisory Council, as required by the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006. Under the law, the Postal Service must “consult with and receive the advice of” panel members representing postal unions and consumers, as well as major mail users, about important policy and operational decisions. [read more]
Federal
Court Dismisses APWU Suit
Union Vows to Challenge
USPS Secrecy in Other
Forums
(04/02/08) A federal court has dismissed a lawsuit by the APWU and the Consumer Alliance for Postal Services (CAPS), which sought access to the meetings and records of the Postal Service’s Mailers Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC). The APWU suit alleges that by excluding representatives of individuals and small businesses, MTAC violates the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which requires the federal government to give the public access to the meetings and minutes of agency advisory committees. MTAC is composed exclusively of high-ranking USPS officials and representatives of large mailers, and portions of its activities are closed to public scrutiny. [read more]
PRC
Ruling Exposes Unhealthy Relationship
Between USPS and Influential Mailers
(03/25/08) A recent ruling Postal Regulatory Commission has concluded that a postage rate increase proposed the USPS includes an excessive “workshare” discount, APWU President William Burrus said in a recent update for union members. “The 2008 PRC ruling is Exhibit #1 in exposing the unhealthy relationship between postal management and influential large mailers,” he added. [read more]
PRC:
Postage Hike
Exceeds Limit on Worksharing Discounts
(03/25/08) Although a review by the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) of proposed USPS postage increases found that the rate hikes are within the price cap permitted by 2006 postal reform legislation, there was another less publicized — but highly significant — conclusion: The proposed rates include a worksharing discount that exceeds the limits allowed under the law and amounts to an astounding 557.8 percent of postal savings. [read more]
Postage Rate Increase
Continues Disturbing Trends
(02/20/08) The postage rate increase recently announced by the USPS continues the practice of giving excessive discounts to large mailers at the expense of consumers, APWU President William Burrus told union members in a recent update. “The trend of converting the USPS from a public institution that serves all the people,” he noted, “to one that primarily serves the interests of commercial mailers continues unabated.” [read more]
APWU Now a Presence
At Mailers’ Advisory Panel Meetings
(01/01/08) The APWU has prevailed in its efforts to gain admittance to the Mailers Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC), a panel composed of large mailers that has been meeting secretly with postal officials to develop long-term plans for the Postal Service. President William Burrus called the agreement to allow the union to monitor the organization’s activities a “major accomplishment for the APWU.” [read more]
Board of Governors Approves Proposal
That PRC Says Could Cost USPS Millions
(12/12/07) The USPS Board of Governors approved a Negotiated Service Agreement (NSA) on Dec. 11 that had been sharply criticized by the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC). In a ruling issued Oct. 19, the rate commission concluded that the Postal Service could lose more than $45 million if the proposed agreement with Bank of America were implemented. Despite the potential losses, the PRC decided that the proposal could be justified under the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act. [read more]
A Victory on MTAC
(11/08/07) ...Burrus also announced that the union had prevailed in its efforts to gain admittance to the Mailers Technical Advisory Committee, a panel composed of large mailers that meets secretly with postal officials to develop long-term plans for the Postal Service. He called the agreement a “major accomplishment for the union.” Every piece of equipment that postal employees interact with and every major management initiative — including network consolidation — began in the Mailers Technical Advisory Committee, Burrus said. “This is the group making the plans for tomorrow’s United States Postal Service,” Burrus said, “and we only find out what their plans are once they are willing to go public.” [read more]
Policy-Making Should Be in the ‘Sunshine’
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(11/01/07) As previously reported, the American Postal Workers Union has filed a lawsuit challenging the exclusion of the union and representatives of the general public from access to the Mailers Technical Advisory Committee. We filed the suit in May, and await a ruling by the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia. We are disappointed that it was necessary to initiate legal action to permit postal employees and the public to participate in this committee, which was formed to share technical information, and make recommendations on matters concerning mail-related products and services. Subjects under discussion by the committee include service standards, network redesign, rates, new equipment and many other issues of major importance to the operations of the nation’s mail service. [read more]
Postal Regulatory Commission:
USPS Could Lose Millions in Proposed Deal
(10/29/07) The Postal Service could lose more than $45 million if a proposed agreement with the Bank of America Corporation is implemented, the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) concluded in early October, but the commission decided nonetheless that the agreement could be justified under the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act. [read more]
Anti-Secrecy Lawsuit
(09/01/07) We await a court ruling in the APWU lawsuit against the Postal Service and the Mailers Technical Advisory Committee (MTAC) on the subject of inclusion: The complaint asserts that a public institution such as the Postal Service cannot engage in secret meetings and deny membership to all interested and eligible parties.
As it stands, this joint committee of the Postal Service and big mailers discusses and reviews studies on a wide range of issues affecting the American public and postal employees. Recommendations and implementing plans are then presented to the unions as part of a “consultation” process that offers little opportunity to make suggestions for change or present alternatives. This cabal, operating through a series of secret meetings, is essentially running the United States Postal Service. [read more]
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Burrus Testifies Before Senate:
USPS on Path to Privatization
(07/26/07) The USPS “has begun to travel resolutely down the road of privatization,” APWU President William Burrus told a Senate subcommittee on July 25, “without authorization from Congress” — or the American people. The subcontracting of postal work, he warned, “is just one aspect of a dangerous trend: the wholesale conversion of a vital public service to one performed privately for profit.” [read more]
"It is clear that MTAC is part of the USPS decision-making process. Why should they be allowed to work in secret?" |
Taking MTAC to Task: What Are They Hiding?
(07/01/07) On May 30, 2007, the American Postal Workers Union filed suit in United States District Court in an attempt to achieve membership in and gain access to the records of the Mailers’ Technical Advisory Committee. The APWU initiated the legal action because MTAC refused to permit an APWU representative to observe its meetings or obtain minutes of the proceedings. APWU was joined in the lawsuit by the Consumer Alliance for Postal Services (CAPS), a coalition representing consumers and nonprofit mailers. [read more]
APWU Sues USPS, Advisory Committee
For Conducting Policy-Making in Secret
(06/06/07) The APWU, together with an organization representing a coalition of consumers and nonprofit mailers, has filed a suit challenging secret policy-making by a Postal Service advisory committee. The panel, the Mailers Technical Advisory Committee, is made up of trade associations that represent large business mailers. Co-chaired by major mailer representatives and postal officials, MTAC — acting through “work groups” — commissions studies and makes recommendations to senior USPS management on postal operations, postal rates, and postal regulations. [read more]
Book Assails Corporate
Influence on Postal Service
(02/20/07) A new book that exposes how Postal Service operations are being molded to suit the interests of corporate mailers and USPS competitors at the expense of workers and consumers has become a “must-read” for union and community activists. Preserving the People's Post Office, published by Ralph Nader's Center for Study of Responsive Law, the book traces the history of recent postal “reform” efforts and exposes how corporate interests and conservative ideologues are conspiring in efforts to reshape the nation’s postal service. [read more]
Enough Is Enough!
(10/25/06) After 15 years of fighting excessive postage discounts for large mailers, the APWU succeeded in 2004 in persuading key legislators, mailers, and other interested parties to include specific restrictions on discounts in pending postal reform legislation.... The APWU had been the lone voice asserting that discounts were often excessive; that excessive discounts rob the USPS of desperately needed revenue; that they shift a disproportionate share of the Postal Service’s “institutional costs” from large mailers to small businesses and individual citizens; and that they amount to a subsidy of private, special interests — a subsidy provided by the Postal Service and the American people.... Before long, however, the large mailers, USPS management, and their White House supporters began to renege on their commitment, offering progressively more watered-down provisions to replace those that had been agreed upon earlier. [read more]
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A Basic and Fundamental Service
‘Provided To and Supported By the People’
(05/01/06) ... In direct contradiction to the clear intent of the U.S. Constitution and later laws, postal management has now shifted the focus and purpose of postal services, replacing service “to the people” with service “to the business community.”
This transformation has led to the distortion reflected on the cover
of this issue of The American Postal Worker, where corporate CEOs
decide the future of the USPS network while ordinary citizens are excluded.
Decisions, including network redesign and plant consolidations, are
not based on their impact on the people, but on their effect on the
large mailers.
[read more]
